Van der Linden was born not far from Amsterdam, in The Netherlands. At the age of 13, he studied the piano and later attended Haarlem’s conservatory, where he studied the church organ. In 1967, he finished his musical studies at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, where he obtained honours in Piano, Church Organ, Harmony and Counterpoint. His love for other types of music grew by devoting himself to Jazz, Ballet, Cabaret, Film and Pop music, while accompanying other musicians.
Rick is most known as artistic leader, composer and keyboard-player of the Dutch symphonic rock band, Ekseption (1967-1974, 1978-1994 reunion, and 2003). He played also in Trace (1973-1976), Cum Laude (1980-1989) and the studio-band Mistral (1977-1980), as well as producing several records on his own label. Typical of his work were combinations of classical music (church-organ) with modern pop, and rock. Rick was the first (well-known) musician to play synthesizer in The Netherlands, where he worked with many local artists, either on record or on stage, including: Liesbeth List, Jan Akkerman, Connie van den Bos, artist and Boudewijn De Groot.
He suffered a stroke in 2005 which left him partly paralised, and subsequently passed away in early 2006.
Born: 5th August 1946, in Badhoevedorp, North Holland, The Netherlands.
Died: 22nd January 2006, in Groningen, The Netherlands. [aged 59]
